Early exposure to iron may contribute to onset of Parkinson's later in life
From our ANI Correspondent

Washington, June 28: New research by the Buck Institute for Age Research suggests that exposure to iron and a common herbicide during the first weeks of life may contribute to the inception of Parkinson's disease later in life.


Results of the study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, also showed that a compound that protects cells in the body from damage from certain forms of oxygen, a kind of antioxidant, could curb such neural degeneration.

"The importance of the study is that it points to a possible role of common mechanisms triggered by iron and paraquat as important in Parkinson's disease, and suggests that therapies that block their effects would be worth testing in patients," said Marie-Francoise Chesselet, chair of the Department of Neurobiology in the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, who did not participate in the study.

The study, conducted using mice, showed that a chemical compound with antioxidant properties could suppress the degeneration of brain cells associated with the onset of Parkinson's.

Parkinson's is a terminal, progressive degenerative disorder that affects 1.5 million people in the United States. The disease's symptoms include tremor, slowness of movement, rigidity and problems with balance. Age is the largest risk factor for Parkinson's.

A team of researchers led by Buck Institute faculty member Julie Anderson worked with four groups of genetically identical mice.

One group of mice was exposed to an excess of iron in infancy; another was given the herbicide paraquat; a third group was exposed to both substances; and a fourth group was not exposed to either of the compounds. Half of each group received treatment with the antioxidant EUK-189.

The study's results showed that exposing animals to both toxics accelerated neurodegeneration in the mice - with symptoms beginning to appear at the human counterpart of middle age. Those mice treated with the antioxidant, which was delivered at the same time as the environmental toxic, had significantly less nerve death in the area of the brain commonly affected by Parkinson's.

Aging is the single major risk factor for PD, but the findings from Andersen and her colleagues show that exposure during the neonatal period may play a crucial role in the development of late-onset PD.

"The fact that the antioxidant prevented much of the nerve damage in the mice points to the need for an early diagnostic test for Parkinson's disease," Anderson said.

"The present findings suggest that antioxidants may be a viable therapeutic approach for neurodegenerative diseases associated with oxidative stress, such as PD," she added.


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Neuroreport. 2007 Jul 16;18(11):1181-1185.
Myricetin reduces 6-hydroxydopamine-induced dopamine neuron
degeneration in rats.Ma ZG, Wang J, Jiang H, Liu TW, Xie JX.
Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, Neuroscience Research
Center of Shandong Province, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong, PR
China.

The effects of myricetin on 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA)-induced
neurodegeneration in the substantia nigra-striatum system were
investigated. By high-performance liquid chromatography
electrochemical detection, we showed that the dopamine content in the
striatum decreased after 6-OHDA treatment, which could be restored by
myricetin. The immunohistochemistry and semiquantitative reverse
transcription-PCR studies showed that myricetin could prevent the 6-
OHDA-induced decrease of tyrosine hydroxylase positive neurons and the
tyrosine hydroxylase mRNA expression in the substantia nigra. Perls'
iron staining study further demonstrated that myricetin prevented the
6-OHDA-induced increase of iron-staining cells in the substantia
nigra. These results suggested that the protective effects of
myricetin on the toxicity of 6-OHDA could be attributed to the
myricetin-suppressed iron toxicity.


PMID: 17589323 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
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Myricetin is a flavonoid that is commonly found in natural food
sources such as berries, vegetables, teas, wine and herbs. Myricetin
is considered to be an antioxidant, which means that it is capable of
eliminating free radicals within the body. It is usually taken from
the bark, leaves, and roots of the plant known as myrica cerifera, and
is completely water soluble, which means it makes an excellent source
for teas